Alabama. It was once the epicenter of the civil rights movement, where black men and women made national headlines — with the Montgomery bus boycott, to protests led by Martin Luther King Jr, to the Selma-to-Montgomery march that only got as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge — in their fight for equal rights.
Now, black women in the state are making headlines once again — as a record number of them are candidates in 2018. More than three dozen African-American women are running for office, an unprecedented number that the party has never seen before, according to NBC News.
In a state with a history of racial division, these women are once again looking to a have a seat at the table, in a system where they have been underrepresented for far too long.
“Alabama is not a state that is known for electing women to office, so, in some sense, this is surprising, historic and much needed,” Richard Fording, a professor of public policy at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, told NBC News.
“It’s so important that we step up, that we show the nation that we can lead,” Jameria Moore told NBC News. “That, here in Alabama, we’re ready to lead our state into the future.”
Moore, 49, is an attorney running for judgeship on the Jefferson County Probate Court.